The government's regional air connectivity scheme, 'UDAN' is giving birth to regional carriers in a country that in the last 20 years has seen closing down of airlines, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday. Scindia made the statement after virtually flagging off the regional airline IndiaOne Air's flight from Jamshedpur to Kolkata. The UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme is "giving birth to new airlines in a country that over the last 20 years has only seen closing of airlines. With this scheme alone, regional airlines like StarAir, IndiaOne Air, FlyBig have been born. New records of aviation will be established," Scindia told PTI.
According to the minister, UDAN scheme has created a new landmark transporting almost close to 1.15 crore people in the last six years. With the commencing of the Jamshedpur flight service the total number of operational airports has increased from 74 in 2013-14 to 147 at present. "We are one short of doubling the number in eight years and next month the 148th airport will be operationalised in India," Scindia said.
According to an official release, the minister inaugurated the flight servcies by IndiaOne Air that will connect three cities - Bhubaneswar (Odisha), Kolkata (West Bengal) and Jamshedpur (Jharkhand). At the virtual event, Scindia said that three important cities of three different states are being connected through this network of flights.
The central government is taking multiple steps for the development of civil aviation infrastructure in Jharkhand.
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